racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

If you have a taste for the finer things in life, then you should get yourself a Moleskine notebook. It’s the Macintosh of notebooks. It’s the Rolls Royce of notebooks. It’s not only about the price or the visual appeal. It’s all about the sensual experience that you get from using these beautiful pieces of work. Hey, that’s why I use a Mac for my writing work. And when I’m off the grid, ordinary pen-and-paper just won’t do. My Moleskine notebooks helps me get the most out of my disconnected moment, whenever needed.

Creative types work best with good tools and a conducive environment. So if you’re serious about your art or craft—be it writing, drawing, or maybe even taking notes—do something about it. Make sure you come up with the best output by using the right tools and being at the right state of mind.

Moleskine notebooks were previously unavailable in the Philippines, but now moleskineph.com is distributing locally. They don’t have a brick-and-mortar store, though, so you have to check out their online catalog and order by email. Prices range from PhP 750 to PhP 900 for the small notebooks (sets of three or so) and PhP 1,250 for the big ones. Not bad, since these usually retail in the US for about US$ 15 to US$ 20.

With Christmas nearing, I think a Moleskine would make for an excellent gift for your loved ones—a good alternative if you can’t just afford a MacBook Pro for each of them just yet.

Have you ever found yourself staring blankly into space, doing nothing when you’re supposed to be productive? Had there been times when you were seemingly on the verge of breakthroughs (in whatever it is that you do), but the next moment you suddenly lose your groove and have to start from scratch? Do you find it difficult to start being productive, and when you finally find your flow, do you struggle to keep it? Do you easily get distracted?

Well, I’ve been in these situations time and again. Probably every other writer trying to come up with his or her masterpiece for that day (or week, or month, or year) has, too. And it’s likely that anyone else in any field would have his or her downtimes in terms of productivity.

Whether you’re tired, burned out, stressed, sick, or simply uninspired, you would inevitably find yourself in situations where you just want to stop what it is you’re trying to do, get some rest, and pick up from where you left after a while.

But, alas! In some cases this just isn’t possible. Like for me, when I get cut from what I’m trying to do, I simply lose my line of thought and I’d have to start from square one. It’s like retracing one’s steps to find something you’ve lost. Yet instead of finding what I’ve “lost,” in many instances, I find myself arriving at a totally different scenario or perspective.

Sometimes it’s good—I get to come up with something better. Sometimes, not.

I’ve been checking out a handful of lifehacking and GTD sites earlier, for something I’ve been drafting for FG on productivity. Ironically, life happened and I had to pause for a while (a long while). So I ended up having to start from scratch, and so I come up with radically different idea. And hence I’m writing here, as it seems more appropriate for the J Spot.

Let’s cut to the chase

In the course of my reading up on GTD sites earlier, I’d picked up something share-worthy. If you want to get things done, you’d better stay focused and stay motivated!

These aren’t exactly new concepts. Still, it’s good to be reminded of the simple things—such advice usually goes a long way.

I hope you would agree with me when I say that humans aren’t built for multitasking, or at least it’s very very difficult for those in knowledge-based and artistic work to juggle several things at the same time. To do well in this regard, you would need to be focused in what you are doing. Whether you’re writing, designing, conceptualizing something, or other such activities, you need to keep your mind free from distractions.

You need to direct all your energies into accomplishing your goal.

However, staying focused is usually not enough. You’d also need to be motivated, so you will stick to what you’re doing to the end. Whether your motivation is money, love (makes the world go ‘round), fame, helping people out, or a little bit of all, it’s good to have something inside you that pushes you to do better, and that sees you through to the end.

Get things done!

There are a handful of other factors that help us get things done, such as the productivity tools that we use, whether these be high tech (PDAs, computers, the Internet) or low (pens, paper, moleskine notebooks, strings tied on forefingers). But the best “tools” are those intrinsic to us, like drive, determination and passion, and of course being focused and motivated.

Right now my mind’s still a bit too cluttered and disorganized to come up with anything else that can be useful (and I’ve probably been rambling for too long on this post, too).

So for the meantime, I leave you with a handful of resources and articles that I’ve been reading up on. I hope you also find these helpful and useful.

• The 4-day workweek from A List Apart
• 43 things
• 43 folders
• To-Done (closed, but nonetheless great reads!)
• Lifehacker
• How to accomplish anything with your words from Pearsonified

Update: How could I have forgotten to include David Peralty’s LifeSpy? Enjoy reading, folks!

Do you believe in fate? Do you believe that there are forces outside of your own control that can somehow govern your destiny? Well, most would probably argue to the contrary, and I would be one to argue such. After all, even though there are indeed forces outside of our own volition that can influence how things come to be, we humans still do have the free will to ultimately decide each action (or instance of inaction), and ultimately what becomes of us. That is God’s gift to humankind, isn’t it?

However, as for Serendipity, that’s another thing. Sometimes when you set out to do something and for a certain goal, the results can turn out to be quite surprising.

A week ago, I posted about having the blogging blues and went on to link to other sites that I found interesting. I do a lot of blog reading, after all and I thought I’d share with my readers (all three of you) what I’ve been reading up on lately. I intended to divert the attention from my stuff, for the meantine, to other people I find to have more interesting insights than I do.

However, things usually go beyond how you intend them to be. And now, after one thing leading into another, I’m glad to say I’ve had two of those people I linked to—Phillip and Ia (or is it supposed to be “Ia and Phillip?” Bah!)—working with us in one of our major undertakings. I’ve gone into dealings with them several times over the past couple of years, but I didn’t expect we’d be working together on something (and something quite financially rewarding, too).

Actually, I’ve been seeking out people for this purpose (you might remember references to “headhunting” in some of my previous posts). I had been looking for creative people, and I can say I’ve approached quite a few so far, but our work didn’t seem to be the good match with ‘em goodfellows. The good match was right under my nose all along. These guys can sure weave magic with words and imagery each on their own! But as a team? One word: synergy (which in this case is something that’s beyond my comprehension, by the way. Go figure!).

So here’s to our creative team. Here’s to great works. And great deeds.

In retrospect to my last post on waiting for one’s muse, here’s another question that’s undoubtedly had its share of time in many an artist’s mind: the art-for-money vis-a-vis art-for-art issue. Lyndon Gregorio has some thoughts:

Should an artist pursue sellable art or should he create art for art’s sake? The first doesn’t really push the envelope while the latter doesn’t really pay the bills.

Lyndon considers himself both an artist and an entrepreneur (IMHO, entrepreneurship is, to some extent, intrinsic in being an artist). His business card says “Creator,” as his title. And guess how he responds to the question? Do ‘em both!

The lesson is an artist worth his/her salt can create both commercial and artistically compelling art, even separately. You can try to make both in a single product, but the driving forces between the commercial and artistic are mutually exclusive.

Ever wonder why the J Spot has no ads? You may be wondering how I monetize this blog if there’s no hint of any advertisement around, contextual or otherwise (I have AdSense on most of my other sites, though, even the old J Spot). I’ll write about this later. But suffice to say for now that I’d rather not be pressured to earn from this site—at least for now. And let’s just say that I’d rather build up my site’s intrinsic value first before venturing into monetization, if at all!

Yes, I consider blogging as an art form, or at least a form of creative expression (hey, we write, don’t we?).

Is it possible to be creative on a deadline?

This is a question probably oft asked of us in the writing / designing / artistic lines of business. Sure, creative types unconstrained by deadlines and requirements—and bills to pay—can go ahead and take their time working on their masterpieces. But for us who rely on our talent and creativity to make a living (or earn our riches, perhaps), it’s a bit more difficult than that. There are times when you feel you’re uninspired and whatever you try to create just turns out as crap!

Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users has this to say about creativity and the muse:

... creativity is not something you “wait for the muse to appear before starting.” ... you just sit down and start the hard work, and trust that it will happen, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

Or simply put,

When it comes to being creative, you have to make the first move!

Okay, this is pretty old—it’s more than one year since Kathy hit the publish button on that one. And I might have skimmed over that particular post when I first read it that time, as I was not yet in a creative line of work (well, semi-creative perhaps, but still mostly a corporate drone). But thoughts like these are timeless and will hold water until the time people cease to view creativity as a gift.

Kathy writes that it’s much more harmful if you just sit there and do nothing. So stop justifying that you’re waiting for inspiration! Sorry, buddy. That’s wrong. Just. Plain. Wrong.

It’s best of you start doing something—anything. Just make sure it’s not something routinary. What matters is that by doing something, your mind does some brainstorming (hopefully from the creative side) and before you know it you’re on to something.

I wrote awhile back on having blogger’s block, and in hindsight, I’d tend to think it wasn’t due to the muse not coming or my not doing anything at all (i.e., making the first move)—in fact, it was probably because of doing too much! Sometimes, even when you’re at the peak of inspiration, things just break down and, well, you get tired and sleepy and all that!

At any rate, I think what I’m trying to say is that if you’re having a hard time trying to squeeze out every ounce of creativity but it seems nothing good’s coming out, there’s probably something wrong. Maybe it’s time to take a little break. Relax. Do something else—anything else. Or maybe you can do things differently, hence jumpstarting your brain by looking at things from a different perspective. Things will start moving smoothly soon after you get back your flow.

So here’s to mind- and life-hacking and getting things done!